Kandy for the day

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Up early and a run around the lake, great seeing the town as it awakens and gets ready for another day. A lot of school children on their way to school (7.00am so school day must start early)and busses and other traffic gridlocked around the lake front. Came across Chris who was out having a walk.

Breakfast in the guest house was good and included small rolled up pancakes with a coconut, caramelised sugar and cardamom paste inside. Really tasty and refreshing. One thing that was a bit off putting was the staff standing around watching and trying a little too hard to please, we understand they are doing there best and probably in the Sri Lankan culture it is ok but we found it uncomfortable.

The lady who owns the guest house (and I would add appears to rule with an iron fist) suggested the botanic gardens were worth a visit, apparently the best in South Asia. We got tuk tuks to the gardens and spent a couple of hour having a wander and look around. Nice and peaceful after the hustle of the town.

On arriving back in town we saw the local central market and decided to stop there for a look. Fruit and vegetable was amazing, all looked fresh and was so well presented, quite a contrast to the market we visited in Colombo where the produce looked a bit tired.

For lunch we were fortunate enough to stumble upon a little local area consisting a number of food stalls under a long tarp roof that seemed to service a vege market on the roof of a carpark building. Tried some deep fried balls made using either jackfruit or banana blossoms, surprisingly both were savoury and quite spicy and delicious.

Queens hotel on the lakefront for a beer and quiet chill. You cans see that in its day this would have been quite splendid but now dilapidated, tired and a rather sad place.

One of the recommended outings in Kandy is the cultural dancing show. We went to the one at the Red Cross hall. Again a somewhat dilapidated venue filled with plastic chairs. Despite being quite early we were towards the rear as the entire front is reserved for organised tours. Dancing was ok, those in our group with a sense of rhythm flat it was a bit lacking.

Dinner at the Kandy Muslim Hotel. Trip Advisors reviews were mixed, seemed food was good but very dirty and service sometimes poor or worse. Our experience was food was great, albeit a bit of trepidation given it did live up to the dirty reviews. LlService was actually fine. (You'll need to wait until tomorrow's missive to find out if there are any repercussions from this).

When we got home were in bed and a knock on the door and it was the manager with freshly cooked brownie for us for supper. Very good brownie it was too!

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Photos

Group selfie at Cultural Dance Show
Again I look constipated taking a selfie!!